Sussex, the seat of Lord Legonfield, where the soil seems particularly favourable to very tall trees, A careful measurement of this in 1905 gave the height as 120 feet by 11 feet in girth, and a bole of 35 to 40 feet, where it divides into two stems, Sir Hugh Beevor, who saw it in 1904, did not make it quite so tall. This tree appears in the foreground of Plate 162.
No park in England contains a greater number of fine and picturesque old pines than Bramshill Park, Hants, the seat of Sir Anthony Cope, who tells me that he believes them to have been planted about the year 1600, and to be some of the oldest in England. The soil here is very light and sandy, and the oldest pines are in avenues, which have become rather irregular in course of time. The tallest trees that I measured here were not over about 80 feet high by 10 to 12 feet in girth, but there is one splendid tree in the Gravel Pit drive which is about 80 feet by 16 feet, of which I give an illustration (Plate 161). There are many selfsown seedlings of various ages in this park, but no other trees of remarkable size.[1]
At Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire, the seat of the Rev. W.T. Blathwayt, there is a very fine tree, of which I am indebted to the owner for a photograph, which measures about 73½ feet high by 14 feet 9 inches in girth, dividing at 4 feet into three trunks. There are some very fine clean Scots pines in Stowe Park, near Buckingham, one in the Queen's Quarter being over 100 feet high, with a clean bole over 60 feet long and 11 feet 3 inches in girth. In the Fir Grove, at Bayfordbury, Herts, there is a tree,[2] with a clear stem of over 50 feet, which measured in 1905, 95 feet high by 9 feet 7 inches in girth.
In Wales I have heard of no Scots pine of greater size than one at Penrhyn Castle, which Henry measured in 1904, and found to be 110 feet by 7½ feet, and about 70 feet to the first branch. At Gwydyr Castle he measured one about 85 feet by 11 feet 2 inches on which a mountain ash seedling was growing.
In Scotland there are so many fine old trees that it is impossible to mention more than a few of them. Perhaps the finest, if not the tallest, is a tree at Inveraray, of which a beautiful photograph by the late Vernon Heath is in the museum at Kew. I measured this tree in September 1905, when it seemed to have changed very little in appearance, and though supported by chains above the fork, is very sound and healthy. It measures 110 feet by 14 feet, forking at about 35 feet, and leaning considerably to one side. The Duke of Argyll informs me that it was probably planted about 1620. Plate 162 shows the present appearance of this tree. There are many other very fine Scots pines at Inveraray on the lower slopes of Dun-i-cuach, but none equal to this in height or girth.
On the banks of the Tay, near Dunkeld, there is a very graceful tree of weeping habit though of no great size (Plate 163), which measures 77 feet by 11 feet 6 inches in girth; and at Blair Atholl there are some curious old pines in a row
- ↑ Bunbury, who visited Bramshill Park in 1859, mentions the tradition that these trees were introduced by James I. from Scotland at the same time that he began building Bramshill, and states that there were three magnificent Scots pines at Eversley Rectory, which were coeval with those of Bramshill. Cf. Lyell, Live of Sir C.J.F. Bunbury, ii, 138, 139 (1906).
- ↑ This tree measured, in 1816, 5 feet 8 inches in girth, according to an entry in an old note-book, now in the possession of Mr. H. Clinton Baker.
